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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 2018)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2018 Kiln: Brings contingent of artists from national clay working collective Continued from Page 1A Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian From left, Don Bacon, owner of Atlantis Auto Glass, has populated his building on Marlin Avenue with several businesses, including Gladys and Susana Deniz of Guadalajara Combo; Ed Jones of Bike Envy; and Jeremy Gilhousen of Bohdan’s cafe. Building: End game for Bohdan’s is place where people can hang out Continued from Page 1A One of Bacon’s first ten- ants was Ed Jones, a mechanic who four years ago began Bike Envy in a rear suite. Jones has worked in Astoria and Portland as a bicycle mechanic. Notic- ing people lining up bikes at his house in Astoria seek- ing repair, Jones decided four years ago to go into business for himself. His shop focuses first on repair, then bike sales, parts and accessories. It has relied primarily on online mar- keting, building a reputation among mountain bikers and gearheads, he said. Several years ago, Bacon offered to build out a space for Paige Simpson if she would move her drive-thru coffee shop, The Coffee Addiction, indoors. Her father, Tracy Simpson, later took over, building out a growler fill sta- tion and tap house. He recently reopened the restaurant and tap house in the former Jeffers Garden Inn on U.S. Highway 101 Business, leaving Bacon with a vacant space to fill. Bacon offered again to build out the space for a restau- rateur — this time Jeremy Gil- housen, who recently opened Bohdan’s, named after his Czech grandfather. Gilhousen trends toward higher-end food and drink, serving up Sleepy Monk Coffee Roasters from Cannon Beach, bagels from Blue Scorcher Bakery & Cafe and sausage in his sandwiches and charcuterie from Gulley’s Butcher Shop. After obtaining a liquor license from the city of Warrenton, Gilhousen plans to offer Fort George Brewery on tap, along with a selection of other beers, wines and ciders. The end game for Bohdan’s is not a dinner spot or bar, but a place where people can come hang out in the afternoon or after work for a beer, a glass of wine and some light fare or Mexican food, Gilhousen said. Bacon, whose mother is from Guadalajara, Mexico, knew the owners of Tacos La Providencia, a popular collec- tion of food trucks in Tilla- mook County. He reached out to the family behind the com- pany, who sent mother-daugh- ter Susana and Gladys Deniz north with a truck they are naming Guadalajara Combo, offering a collection of tacos, burritos and other Mexican staples. “We’re trying to bring the authentic flavor from there to here,” Susana Deniz said through her daughter, who acts as translator while her mother cooks. The family was looking for a change, Susana Deniz said, and had a friend in Bacon and a support network around Building 1140 to help their food truck. “I guess we’re just trying to provide the best option with everything that we do,” Bacon said of how he’s gathered the businesses around his auto glass shop. Building 1140 will hold a grand opening with the Asto- ria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce at noon on Oct. 16. Rushing flames and super- heated ash from fires inside the kiln, stoked continuously for around 100 hours at up to 2,300 degrees Fahren- heit, mark and glaze the clay pieces. Each firing requires several cords of wood, stacked in walls under cover around the kiln. Rowland meticulously arranged the pieces — from pots, plates and eggs to whis- tles, faces and the imprints of clenched fists — from local artists and the visiting Maori beforehand to best catch the updrafts of flame and avoid damage by wood continuously fed into the kiln from stoking holes during the firing. Rowland’s original kiln, built in the early 1980s out of brick salvaged from for- mer Columbia River canner- ies, has gone through an esti- mated 100 to 150 firings. It has long provided soup bowls for fundraising feasts support- ing The Harbor, a local advo- cacy group for victims of sex- ual and domestic violence, and the Tillamook County Wom- en’s Resource Center. Pieces fired in the kiln have spread around the world and through- out the North Coast, most notably throughout Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria. Consulting experts But over the years, the Astoria Dragon Kiln has slowly deteriorated, losing its ability to retain heat and drop- ping bits of brick on pieces being fired. Several years ago, Rowland began plan- ning his new, more technically advanced anagama kiln, visit- ing Japan, Korea and Australia to consult experts in the style. Big River Construction excavated into the hillside below his first kiln, creating a 23-degree incline from the entrance to the chimney uphill for the best updraft of flames. The new kiln lays on a cement foundation complete with an underground drainage system. Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian The new anagama kiln includes portholes for viewing and stoking the multiday fires. The main chamber is lined with alumina-infused bricks specially designed to reflect flames and hold up amid the high-temperature firings. Sen- sors allow Rowland to moni- tor the temperature in different parts of the chamber. A carbon scrubber cleans emissions as they flow from the chamber to the chimney. Portholes along the chamber allow the around- the-clock shifts to view and feed the fires. Rowland has had a con- tinuing exchange with Maori clay artists from New Zea- land over the past decade. Several of the artists visited in 2015 as part of a Pacific Rim art exhibit at the college. Two of them, Manos Nathan and Colleen Waata Urlich, helped found Nga Kaihanga Uku, the national Maori clay work- ers collective in New Zealand. Both died shortly after their last visit to the North Coast. Rowland had thought of naming his new kiln the sec- ond-generation Astoria Dragon Kiln, but thought of his fellow Polynesians across the Pacific. The Maori brought a contin- gent of nine artists, including the other three surviving found- ers of the collective — Paerau Corneal, Baye Riddell and Wi Taepa — for workshops and cultural events through- out October. They brought clay pieces to fire in Rowland’s kiln, along with remembrances of Urlich and Nathan. “It is quite significant for us to be here to remember Colleen and Manos,” Corneal said. Maori often take remem- brances of the family of the departed as a way to mourn while also strengthening fam- ily connections. As a Native Hawaiian, Rowland is like a Polynesian cousin to the Maori, Riddell said. Naming the kiln Ahikaaroa refers to the tra- ditional village fire kept burn- ing at all times in precolonial New Zealand, or Aotearoa in Maori. It was also the name of Nathan’s kiln in the Waipoua Forest on the North Island of New Zealand. Over the next several days, six-hour shifts will continu- ously monitor and stoke the kiln, slowly building the tem- perature inside to more than 2,300 degrees. After holding the maximum temperature for a day, the kiln will be slowly cooled until late next week, when potters will get a chance to view their pieces. Carla Ruka, one of the vis- iting Maori artists, said one of the joys of firing in an anag- ama kiln is the surprise of see- ing how pieces turn out. “There’s only a certain degree of control you have over the colors,” she said. “At the end of the day, the fire’s going to make the big choice itself.”
